Let's Remember That A White Man Attempted To Bomb An Oklahoma Bank This Week

Federal officials arrested a man for his terrorist plot to detonate a bomb near a bank in downtown Oklahoma City early Saturday morning.

ABC News reports that undercover agents — who began their months-long investigation of 23-year-old Jerry Varnell after an informant tipped the FBI off to his plan — met with the suspect in June, where he revealed himself to be a member of the Three Percenters, an anti-government extremist group that grew in response to Barack Obama’s presidency.

An FBI agent posed as someone who could help Varnell build a bomb. Varnell helped assemble the device, loaded it into what he believed was a stolen van, and dialed a number on a cell phone that he believed would trigger an explosion shortly after midnight on Saturday. The device was inert, however, and officers arrested Varnell shortly before 1:00 am.

In texts with the FBI informant, Varnell stated “I’m out for blood. When militias start getting formed I’m going after government officials when I have a team.”

Oklahoma Department of Corrections

The failed plot came on the heels of a White supremacist-led vigil that terrorized Charlottesville, Virginia residents Friday night as part of a Unite the Right rally.

The two-day rally, which organizer Jason Kessler assembled to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate monuments, descended to melee as participants brutally assaulted counter protesters.

In an act that appears premeditated, according to Charlottesville police, motorist James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd of counter protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

The rally, and Varnell’s attempted domestic terrorist plot in the same weekend, raise fears that this is only the beginning of extreme racist violence under the Trump Presidency, as neither Trump nor members of his administration took swift action to denounce the acts and lend order to the chaos.

[MUSIC] There was a group on this side, you can call them the left, you've just called them the left. That came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want, but that's the way it is. [MUSIC] But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group That were there to protest, the taking down of to them a very, very important statue. [MUSIC] You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that. But I'll say it right now. You had a group on the other side That came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent. [MUSIC] Are we gonna take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think about Thomas Jefferson? Okay, good. Are we gonna take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now are we gonna take down his statue? So you know what? It's fine. You're changing history, you're changing culture. [MUSIC] I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct. Not make a quick statement. The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement. But you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts. And it's a very, very important process to me. And it's a very important statement. So I don't want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. [SOUND] [BLANK_AUDIO]